Matt Brouwer is a JUNO and Covenant award winning singer/songwriter originally from Truro, Nova Scotia. With more than two decades of hit songs, including “Water,” “I Shall Believe,” “Everlasting,” and the Billboard CCM Top 20, “Sometimes”, Matt is a proven voice at radio and has connected with listeners worldwide. His latest project, “Best Days Ahead”, released on April 5th, 2024, is Brouwer’s first new music in ten years.
Matt Brouwer got his start in the Christian music industry while studying music in Alberta, Canada. While in college he and fellow students founded the band Monday Night Worship (MNW). Because of the spiritual content of his original songs, he was ‘discovered’ by a Nashville record company and released his solo debut album May 29, 2001 on Reunion Records. He then formed his own label called Black Shoe Records and over the next 15 years released a total of 7 album projects. Brouwer’s music has been hailed for its relentless vulnerability as he shares his life’s story of tragedy (the tragic death of his father) and hope (his Spiritual pilgrimage) with his listeners.
“I never imagined where this journey would take me”, says Brouwer. “I can remember being 17 or 18 and feeling so compelled to sing about the Spiritual awakening I was experiencing. It was like being embraced by the most incredible love and connection to God and the key to unlocking this door to my heart was through music. I was hungry for that connection and totally committed and determined to follow it wherever it might lead me. My time in college and the friends I made there, the energy that was driving us to write songs and attempt to share them with the world felt like a humble but passionate expression of a new and relevant faith that was growing like a wildfire at the time. All these years later I still feel that longing. With all the miles travelled and water under the bridge, I still sit down in front of a piano or with a guitar and dream about what could be possible. I believe in the power of God’s love, transforming hearts through music and worship because I’ve experienced it and I’ve seen it happen in sometimes subtle and not so subtle ways. It’s something I believe I’ll be pursuing my entire life.”
Today, Matt is married and he and his wife, Hannah, have 3 young children. Matt and Hannah first met while on a mission trip in Guatemala, where Hannah’s parents serve as medical missionaries. The relationship blossomed and they were engaged in the spring of 2010 and married later that year. The balance of career and family has been a stretch at times, but it’s something Matt says he is learning to embrace and explore. “Being married and having a family has re-oriented my priorities completely and the career things that used to be so important to me have become less so. Being a great husband, father, and friend are much more important to me right now than striving for some big career that takes me away from these precious gifts of family and community.” In that spirit, the Brouwer family uprooted from their home in Houston, TX and relocated back to the Maritimes, settling in Moncton, NB in the fall of 2021. Matt currently serves as Director of Worship Arts at Crandall University.
Community and camaraderie have become increasingly more important to the singer and one listen to his songs reveal this collaborative spirit that is a hallmark of Matt’s musical pallet. Those lending their vocal talents in the past include JJ Heller, Jill Paquette, and even Vince Gill and Amy Grant. For his latest project, Brouwer again teamed up with a fellow Canadian and Maritime worship leader, Jeff Somers, for a vocal collaboration on the song, “Revealed”. Says Brouwer, “The idea for this project came about a few years ago while my family and I were still living in Texas. Someone I had gone to college with started a facebook group celebrating our 20 year reunion. All the posts and memories inspired me to imagine what it might sound like making music like we did in college where I first began my music career. What has changed? What has stayed the same, how have we all gotten to where we are. In exploring these questions I started to feel really optimistic about the future and that no matter what we’ve been through in the ups and downs of life, nothing is wasted, no part of our story is irrelevant, and our Best Days are Ahead because all our stories are part of the bigger story of God’s love for us. To me, this project is a throwback to my very first days of making music and at the same time a hopeful look around at where we are right now. The story’s not over and nothing is wasted.“
